


Heaven is Here

by Drogna



Series: Hell is Empty [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Episode AU: s02e16 Doomworld, F/M, RipFic, TimeShip, Timeship Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 00:03:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20300140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drogna/pseuds/Drogna
Summary: Alternate ending to Hell is Empty. After the Legends return to the ship and discuss their plans to deal with Thawne, Rip comes up with another way of getting the Spear of Destiny.





	Heaven is Here

**Author's Note:**

> The first part of this story, to which this is an alternate ending, can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10539798/chapters/23272638

Rip’s treatment proceeded well, and Gideon noted that the return of the crew had definitely improved his spirits. Captain Lance had stayed with him through out the detoxification process, for which Gideon was very grateful. There was one thing that she could not give her Captain and that was physical contact. She had watched how pleased he had been when Sara had decided to hold him, and somewhere in her processors there had been a twinge of an emotion that she hadn’t felt before. She was somewhat ashamed to identify it as jealousy.

She had never felt that before. Not with Miranda, nor any of the Captain’s other female friends. She had known that Rip loved his wife and had been happy for both of them when they were together, and grieved with her Captain when she died. This was… strange.

“Your treatment is complete, Captain,” said Gideon.

The two humans who were currently lightly snoozing in a rather awkward position on the medbay couch stirred.

“Thank you, Gideon,” said Rip. “Sara, I think you might need to get up first.”

Sara stretched, moving herself slowly. She peeled away from Rip’s back, and disentangled their limbs so that she could stand. Rip rolled into a sitting position, slightly less rapid to awaken properly. He was still malnourished and therefore his body was not functioning at one hundred percent. Gideon had every intention of bringing him back to full health, but her Captain did not make such things easy.

Rip removed the medical cuff, hooking it onto the arm of the chair where it belonged.

“I hope you are feeling better,” said Gideon.

“Much,” said Rip, with a nod and look towards one of her cameras. “Also I’m wondering if you could run some simulations for me, Gideon. I think the detoxification has also cleared my previously foggy brain.”

“You have a new plan?” asked Sara.

“The start of one, perhaps, and it doesn’t involve us crossing our own timeline, or at least it doesn’t involve you crossing your own timeline. I may still have to cross mine… but hopefully I can avoid meeting myself.”

“What are you thinking?” asked Sara.

“That we create a stable paradox,” said Rip.

“How the hell do we do that?” asked Sara.

“With some difficulty. The problem we have is that we cannot go back to visit ourselves without causing damage to the very fabric of spacetime. However, we need to prevent the Spear of Destiny from falling into Eobard Thawne’s hands,” said Rip. “There is one other time when we know that the Spear of Destiny is whole and in the possession of someone we trust…”

Sara looked at Rip for a moment and realisation dawned on her face.

“You’re talking about the Spear Guardians, the Justice Society of America and you when you met them the first time around,” said Sara. “But if we take the Spear from them, assuming that we can even persuade them to give it to us, won’t that damage the timeline worse? None of this will have happened because you wouldn’t have the Spear fragments.”

“If we were to simply take the Spear from them, yes, but what we actually need to do is to borrow it,” said Rip.

“So, we take it, we use it, we bring it back?” asked Sara.

“The best idea would be to retrieve it shortly before I come into possession of it,” said Rip, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to straighten it. “But it would still be best if I wasn’t part of this mission. It’s far too close to my own timeline for it to be safe.”

“You told me not even three hours ago that you don’t want to be left alone on the ship,” said Sara, “and you know that we’ll need everyone for this. Star Girl said that you found that Spear in Leipzig when it was part of East Germany.”

Gideon watched a shudder run through her Captain’s body as the mere thought of his enforced isolation affected him adversely. He took a deep breath and straightened his back.

“I won’t be alone, I will have Gideon, and you will be on coms,” said Rip, as he visibly pushed down his fear. “Now, we should call the others together and put together a plan. This is not going to be easy, there are a lot of details that you’re not aware of that will complicate this and you must not meet the members of the JSA.”

She had never been more proud of him.

***

Rip sat in the pilot’s chair on the bridge of the Waverider. Gideon’s avatar hung in the air behind him, his sole company for the moment. He could feel the increase in his heart’s rhythm as the Legends left the ship, and the Waverider cloaked behind them.

He felt somewhat guilty. They were the ones risking their lives by breaking into the grounds of a Soviet army base on the outskirts of Leipzig. The Spear of Destiny had been in Nazi hands until the end of the Second World War and far too well guarded for Rip to make any kind of attempt on it up until this point. He had originally picked this point because history had recorded the JSA’s mission to infiltrate the base in Leipzig and so he’d known that he would have help. He hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to destroy the Spear or that the JSA would find out exactly what his true mission was.

“Rip, we’re heading out to the base,” said Sara. “Any last advice?”

“I know that I was with the JSA in the camp in the forest to the east so I would suggest avoiding that. The Waverider is parked about a mile from here so you shouldn’t come into contact with it. Remember that if you do see any of us that this is before I came to realise everything that I know now about the Time Masters, but I already had doubts about some of their motives. I never handed the Spear over to them because I knew that it was too powerful for any one person or organisation to possess,” he said, hoping that he could keep the nervousness out of his voice.

He’d told them all this before, but talking helped him to stay calm. He knew that there was someone out there and they would be back soon. He just had to hold himself together for an hour at most.

“Got it,” replied Sara. “We’ve got the exact co-ordinates of where it was buried and we’ll make sure that we’re not seen. There’s a lot of fog out here, or maybe it’s smoke, it’s hard to tell.”

“Both probably,” said Rip, trying to remember what the conditions had been like when he and the three members of the JSA had located the Spear. He mainly remembered it being cold and dark, but the damp had been pervasive for much of the time he spent with the JSA. German forests in winter were not known for their hospitality. He was accustomed to dealing with difficult conditions and it certainly wasn’t his first visit to hostile territory or his last.

“Sara, we’re keeping them occupied, but they’re not going to be distracted by Grey asking for directions for long,” said Jax, he and Martin were ensuring that no one noticed the people climbing the wall.

The other Legends were similarly occupied in other parts of the base keeping lookout or dealing with guards. The main problem that they had was that they couldn’t let anyone know that they’d been here because that could then affect the JSA’s attempt to retrieve the Spear later.

“We’re climbing the wall,” said Sara.

There was the sound of explosions over the coms.

“Sara!” said Rip, with alarm.

“I thought you said that the Spear was on a disused part of the shooting range!” said Sara.

“I thought that it was,” replied Rip. He didn’t remember that but he and the JSA wouldn’t try to dig it up until the following night when possibly there had been no exercise.

“And of course they’re doing a night exercise,” said Ray. “I guess that makes sense. It’s probably part of their training drills.”

“Damn it, there are people here. We’re going to have to talk fast,” said Sara. “I’m going off coms for a bit. Hang in there, Rip. This won’t take long.”

“Sara?” he asked, but got no reply.

The silence on the bridge was deafening. Rip felt the terror of being alone again creep up his spine.

The rest of the Legends probably also couldn’t talk right now because they were also dealing with infiltrating a military base. He’d just have to wait this out. He stomped over to the table to see if the readouts could give him more information and possibly a distraction.

“Gideon…” he said.

“I’m here,” she replied.

“You always are,” he said. “Talk to me, tell me that they’ll be back and that I didn’t just send them out to get killed.”

“They will be back, Captain, and I don’t believe the Legends could be sent anywhere they didn’t already want to go.”

Rip’s breathing came in ragged gulps. He wanted to be reassured by her words, but his body and mind seemed to have other ideas. The air suddenly felt thin and as if he wasn’t drawing enough into his lungs.

He looked longingly at the alcohol in the parlour. A drink would steady his nerves… He almost started towards the parlour but then he turned away, disgusted with himself for being so weak. He could not fall apart every time the ship was empty. This was ridiculous, and he absolutely would not let Thawne win.

“Captain, you are experiencing a panic attack,” said Gideon. “Please sit down and I will talk you through dealing with it.”

He shook his head, leaning heavily on the console. He didn’t get panic attacks. He’d been alone on the ship for an entire year and not had a single one. His heart clenched, fluttering too fast in his chest, and he thought for a moment that he was either about to have a heart attack or pass out.

“Captain, please do as I say,” said Gideon, a little more gently.

He could not refuse that tone and she probably knew that. He staggered to the nearest chair and sat down.

“I will count. Try to breathe in for five and then out for five. You can close your eyes and listen to the sound of my voice if that helps you to focus on your breathing,” said Gideon.

He nodded, unable to spare the breath for words and attempted to do as she asked, slowing his breathing. She counted and it was actually quite soothing to hear her voice and know that she was his constant companion. He had no idea how much time passed while he listened to the counting and the numbers brought his breathing back under calm control.

“Well done,” said Gideon. “Would you like me to play some music?”

Rip considered the question for a moment, but shook his head.

“Talk to me. You’ve kept me sane for an entire year. You’re quite good at it,” said Rip.

“I care very deeply for you. You are important to me,” said Gideon.

“And I care about you too, Gideon,” said Rip. “You have saved my life more times than I can count. When this is all over, we should talk.”

“About what?” asked Gideon.

Rip sighed.

“I suppose now is an equally good time,” he replied. “I want to ask you if you would be interested in going on a date with me?”

“A date?”

“Yes, an official one,” said Rip. “I know we’ve been spending a lot of time together, but I think we should change the nature of our relationship. After being alone with you for so long on the Waverider… I realised that you’re actually the only person I really need.”

“I think that is something of an exaggeration, but I will allow it as I know that is part of the human courtship ritual. How would you envision this working?”

“I’m not sure. But we could talk and maybe I could jump the Waverider to somewhere romantic,” said Rip.

“I think I would like that,” said Gideon.

“Rip!” the com crackled. “Rip, we’ve got it. We’re on our way back.”

“Sara? Good, we don’t have a moment to waste.” He looked up at Gideon. “To be continued, Gideon. We have a world to save.”

“To be continued, Captain.”


End file.
